Forty years ago an event occured that changed the sound of Britain's radio forever. It started out as a protest for the freedom to play music, and ended up challenging the British government.
If it had not happened it is possible that commercial radio as we know it, may not be in existence here today. Until that time there had been no serious challenge to the BBC monopoly. The pirates led the way in proving it was possible to do so.

At the beginning of the 1960s there were only three radio stations in Britain all run by the BBC. As it was a national public service the government insisted that all programmes were respectable, and that news broadcasts were reliable and impartial. It was not allowed to broadcast commercials as the government felt that advertisers or sponsers could influence the quality or content of the programmes.
The BBC has always been funded by licence payers. At first there was a seperate radio licence but it is now funded by the Television licence which from 1 April 2004 is £121.00 (approx.$222.00) per year, which is paid by all owners of television sets, except for owners over 75 years old who now get a free licence. It is managed by a Board of Governors, who, on political issues, are answerable to the Home Secretary. It is still renowned for its impartial reliable news broadcasts and the view on advertising still persists.

At the start of the 1960s the BBC played very little popular music, partly because agreements with the Musicians Union, regarding the employment of musicians, limited the amount of recorded music that could be played. So in the evening listeners tuned to Radio Luxembourg a commercial station which broadcast from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in Europe. As it was originally granted a low - powered internal frequency and was not licenced to broadcast to Britain, it could be called the first pirate radio.

At that time a young Irishman, Ronan O'Rahilly, was managing pop singer Georgie Fame. As neither the BBC nor Luxembourg would give much airtime to small record labels Ronan decided to start his own station.
A radio station broadcasting from a ship may have seemed an odd idea but inspired by Holland's Radio Veronica which had broadcast since 1960, Ronan O'Rahilly had a dream. He was fortunate in that his father was a successful businessman who owned the port of Greenore in Ireland. Through his record company Ronan raised finance for the first ship. Other would-be owners had to form companies to afford the ships, maintain them and pay a crew and DJs. To do this they ran them, as Radio Luxembourg was run, with commercials or sponsors.

Although the station traditionally celebrates its opening at Easter, it is 27 March 2004 that marked the 40th Anniversary of the first test transmisson from Radio Caroline.The station was officially opened by Simon Dee two days later on Easter Sunday 29 March 1964.
The first ship off the British coast, in the North Sea three and a half miles from Felixstowe, was the 763 ton former passenger ferry m.v.Fredericia. On 27 April 1964 she was joined by a smaller ship,the 370 ton coaster m.v. Mi Amigo,which, at first, was a rival station, Radio Atlanta. After a few weeks the two stations merged. The Fredericia sailed around the coast into the Irish sea to become Caroline North. The Mi Amigo stayed in the North Sea as Caroline South. In November 1964 she was joined there by a major rival. The 780 ton American minesweeper m.v. Galaxy - Radio London.
Other ships soon followed, and stations were also set up in the wartime forts in the Thames estuary, surrounding the British coast with music. The young DJs ,the majority of them just into their twenties, were admired for their daring defience of the government. They played upon the 'romantic pirate' image, although in reality they were sometimes homesick or seasick.
It is difficult to explain the spirit of adventure and challenge that they conveyed. Being confined on board ship for weeks at a time they developed a happy comraderie that they communicated through their broadcasts to the listeners, a feeling of togetherness and freedom that a land-based station could not capture. It lasted for over three years, until the Government's Marine Offences Act made it illegal for ships to broadcast within British territorial sea and forced them off the air on 14 August 1967 All except one- Caroline continued alone for another seven months

On 30 September 1967 the BBC started Radio 1 as a replacement for the ships, employing a number of the DJs from them, and also from Radio Luxembourg. These were already well-known to the listeners and were experienced at 'personality' broadcasting. Most BBC programmes had been presented by announcers who addressed an audience. The DJs aimed to speak to individual listeners.

BBC local radio started on 8 November 1967 with Radio Leicester.At first, all BBC Local Radio broadcasts were on FM only. Although they have their own station-managers etc. all local non-commercial stations are part of the BBC.
The commercial stations are all owned seperately, but some have been taken over and larger areas of the country are now covered by the same companies, which network some programmes. They have been regulated by the Radio Authority, which changed to OFCOM, the Office of Communications at the end of 2003

The Isle of Man has been legally broadcasting commercial radio on Manx Radio since June 1964 on FM and October 1964 on AM. It had it's own internal government but needed a licence from the British government, which was reluctantly granted. The Republic of Ireland has always has its own different system of broadcasting.

The first legal local Commercial Radio, within Britain LBC started on 13 October 1973. followed a week later by Capital. The first National Commercial Station, Classic FM started in September 1992 It broadcasts mainly Classical music, competing for listeners from the BBCs Radio 3
Virgin 1215 AM, the only national commercial pop music station, began on 30 April 1993

Britain does also have hospital and student radio stations. These broadcasts can only be heard inside the buildings they serve.